A Pilgrimage to Palestine

Chautauqua, NY: The Chautauqua Press, 1928. Fourth printing [stated]. Hardcover. Good. Folding map at frontis. xiii, [3], 332, [4] pages. Footnotes. A Selected Bibliography for the Traveler. Index of Scriptural References. Index of Subjects and Proper Names. Cover has some wear and soiling. Page xiii is bound in prematurely, prior to page vii. Some endpaper and page discoloration and foxing. Harry Emerson Fosdick (May 24, 1878 - October 5, 1969) was an American pastor. Fosdick became a central figure in the Fundamentalist-Modernist controversy within American Protestantism in the 1920s and 1930s and was one of the most prominent liberal ministers of the early 20th century. Although a Baptist, he was called to serve as pastor, in New York City, at First Presbyterian Church in Manhattan's West Village, and then at the historic, inter-denominational Riverside Church in Morningside Heights, Manhattan. Fosdick's sermons won him wide recognition. His 1933 anti-war sermon, "The Unknown Soldier", inspired the British priest Dick Sheppard to write a letter that ultimately led to the founding of the Peace Pledge Union. His Riverside Sermons was printed in 1958, and he published numerous other books. His radio addresses were nationally broadcast; he also wrote the hymn "God of Grace and God of Glory". Fosdick's book A Guide to Understanding the Bible traces the beliefs of the people who wrote the Bible, from the Hebrews (which he regarded as practically pagan) to the faith and hopes of the New Testament writers. Fosdick was a member of the American Friends of the Middle East, a founder of the Committee for Justice and Peace in the Holy Land, and an active "anti-Zionist". Dr. Fosdick has put his pilgrimage to Palestine in a category by itself by making it a simply amazing pageant of historical associations, an exhibit of the ramifications between the geographical features of Palestine and the contents of the Bible which is most illuminating. Often his method conveys to his reader such a sense of the veracity of Biblical records that the scene in question seems to rise up before him like a speaking apparition from the dead past. Contents: The Lie of the Land; The Background of History; The Impressiveness of Sinai; The Hebrew Invasion; The City of David; From Gilgal to Galilee; Journeys to the Prophets' Homes; With the Master in Nazareth; The Galilean Ministry; Going Up to be Crucified; Christ and Christianity in Palestine; and Palestine Tomorrow.